667 chapter 24: the glory of the mystical temple follows not from my own understanding about the bliss of our Bodies and Souls, but I shall derive it from the sources of those most happy wayfarers, who rather often tasted these delights, to which they were carried over in mind and intellect, but most sparingly, lest, by too great a desire, I overwhelm the thirst rather than excite it. Bodies indeed shall be adorned with those four admirable and excellent qualities: Impassibility, as theologians say; Subtlety; Agility; and Clarity. Paul, that most ardent champion of our most fortunate resurrection, expressed them most happily, when counteracting with great eloquence and wisdom the tacit objection of certain men about this subject: “Someone may say, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come back?’” The Apostle replies: “You fool! What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind; but God gives it a body as He chooses, and to each of the seeds its own body.” “So also the resurrection of the dead. It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible. It is sown dishonorable, it is raised glorious. It is sown weak; it is raised powerful. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual one” (1 Cor 15:35-38, 42-44). Moreover, that river of Paradise divided into four branches signifies the same qualities. Moses, that most holy man, said about this: “A river rises in Eden to water the garden; beyond there it divides and becomes four branches. The name of the first is the Pishon. The name of the second river is Gihon. The name of the third river is Tigris. The fourth river is the Euphrates” (Gen 2:1014). In Jeremiah Drexel’s227 opinion one may compare the four qualities of the bodies of the blessed with these four rivers.228 227 Jeremy Drexel, SJ (d. 1638), writer of ascetic books; cf. Lanz, Arnaldo, “Drexel (Drexelius), Jeremy:” ECat IV, 1927-1928. 228 Cf. Drexel, Jeremy, SJ, Heaven, the City of the Blessed, in: The Complete Works, Mainz 1651, vol. 1, p. 348 (Fifth Minor Work, Bk. II, Ch. VI: The Sixth Joy in Heaven from the Four Gifts of the Glorious Body, where it is said: “Accordingly, as holy writ attests, ‘A river flowed from the place of pleasure to water paradise,
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==